Lester Wunderman, ‘father’ of direct marketing, dies at 98

Lester Wunderman often called the father of direct marketing died Wednesday at age 98.

Wunderman, who was chairman emeritus and founder of his namesake agency, is credited with innovations like the 1-800 toll-free number and the magazine-subscription card. Wunderman is a member of the DMA Hall of Fame and the Advertising Hall of Fame, and in 1999, Ad Age named him to its "Persons of the Century" list.

Wunderman was so widely admired and beloved in the direct marketing world that Howard Draft, a famed name in the discipline, says Wunderman was "the only guy I'd go to work for. One of the great teachers of all time. There was nobody better."